Politics

(WASHINGTON) — A rare political standoff continued between the leader of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Trump administration continued on Thursday, leaving CDC Director Susan Monarez’s termination in limbo as high-level CDC officials resigned in protest.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters President Donald Trump had fired Monarez, saying Monarez “was not aligned with the president’s mission to make America healthy again.”

“It was President Trump who was overwhelmingly reelected on November 5,” Leavitt said. “This woman has never received a vote in her life, and the president has the authority to fire those who are not aligned with his mission.”

Leavitt said her replacement will be announced “very soon” either by Trump or by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

But immediately after the White House press briefing, Monarez’s attorneys pushed back that she still hasn’t heard directly from the president and thus hasn’t been officially terminated from her job — her stance since Wednesday.

“[White House press secretary] can say whatever she wants because thankfully free speech still exists in this country. But it doesn’t make her comments factually true, even when from a White House podium,” attorney Mark Zaid wrote on X.

Monarez’s attorneys maintain that she will respect the decision of the president himself, but said they have not had any further communication with the White House since Wednesday night, when a White House staffer notified her that she’d been fired. They don’t consider the notification substantial enough because she is a Senate-confirmed, presidential appointee.

Further legal routes, if they don’t hear from the president, are “under consideration,” Zaid told ABC News. In the meantime, Monarez does not have access to her work office or email, he said.

Meanwhile, President Trump has yet to publicly weigh in on the dispute.

Kennedy, at a news conference about rural health in Texas on Thursday, said Monarez was “let go.”

“There’s a lot of trouble at CDC, and it can require getting rid of some people over the long term in order for us to change the institutional culture and bring back pride and self esteem and make that agency the stellar agency that it’s always been,” Kennedy said.

Monarez’s attorneys say the administration is attempting to oust her for “protecting the public” over serving “a political agenda.” The dispute began as a disagreement over demands from Kennedy and his top staff for Monarez to support changes to COVID vaccine policy and the firings of high-level staff, which Monarez would not commit to, a source familiar with the conversations told ABC News.

After HHS said on Wednesday that Monarez was no longer director of the agency, four other senior career officials at the CDC also resigned, according to emails obtained by ABC News.

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a deciding vote on Kennedy’s confirmation to lead HHS as chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, wrote on X that the “high profile departures will require oversight by the HELP Committee.”

Cassidy also called for the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a committee that reviews vaccine data and determines nationwide recommendations, to be indefinitely postponed following the CDC staff shakeups. The next meeting of the agency’s vaccine panel is scheduled for September 18 and 19.

“Serious allegations have been made about the meeting agenda, membership, and lack of scientific process being followed for the now announced September ACIP meeting. These decisions directly impact children’s health and the meeting should not occur until significant oversight has been conducted,” Cassidy said in a statement on Thursday.

The White House on Thursday was asked about Trump’s stance on COVID vaccines, specifically whether he believes they should be available and covered by insurance for all Americans, regardless of age and pre-existing conditions.

The question came after the FDA on Wednesday approved updated COVID-19 vaccines for only high-risk Americans, a narrower scope than in the past.

The new, more limited FDA approval for the vaccines questions about accessibility — whether people will still be able to get the vaccines easily in pharmacies, rather than doctors offices — and insurance coverage, which is often determined by the CDC advisory committee’s recommendations. The list price, without coverage, for certain COVID vaccines is over $100.

“The reason for the revocation of that emergency youth authorization is because, obviously, the COVID pandemic and the public health emergency is over,” Leavitt said. “But just to correct the record, because there’s been a lot of misinformation on this, the FDA decision does not affect the availability of COVID vaccines for Americans who want them.”

“We believe in individual choice. That’s a promise both the president and the secretary have made. It’s a promise they have now delivered on,” Leavitt said.

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(SAN ANTONIO) — Former Major League Baseball player Mark Teixeira has announced a run for Congress in Texas in a red district that includes areas around San Antonio and Austin.

“As a lifelong conservative who loves this country, I’m ready to fight for the principles that make Texas strong and America exceptional. It takes teamwork to win, and I’m ready to help defend President Trump’s America First agenda, Texas families, and individual liberty,” he says in a statement on his new campaign website.

The former first baseman is running to fill the seat of Republican Rep. Chip Roy, who is running for Texas attorney general and has clashed with the Trump administration at times.

This will be Teixeira’s first run for political office after his 14 seasons in the MLB — during which he earned three All-Star selections, five Gold Gloves and three Silver Sluggers. He retired in 2016, having played for several teams, including for the Texas Rangers, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Angels and New York Yankees.

Teixeira was on the World Series-winning Yankees team in 2009.

“Playing for the Texas Rangers and raising my family in the Lone Star State has been one of the greatest blessings of my life,” Teixeira said in a statement. “Now I’m ready to answer the call to serve my country, my state, and the conservative principles that made Texas the envy of the nation.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is once again vowing to protect Social Security if congressional Republicans seek another reconciliation bill.

Asked earlier this week what he would prioritize should Republicans in Congress seek a reconciliation bill, a cost-cutting tactic that would bypass the usual Senate filibuster, Trump said he would focus efforts on cutting unnecessary things, and “save” others, such as Social Security.

“One thing I said and I gave my word — we’re not going to hurt anybody on Medicaid, Medicare or Social Security,” Trump said Monday in the Oval Office. Congress is prohibited from touching Social Security’s benefit structure or revenue mechanisms in a reconciliation bill.

Trump went on to say “we’re doing great on Social Security” and that “we’re going to protect it.”

Protecting Social Security is a common refrain for Trump, who promised to protect the federal program on the campaign trail and has reiterated that message through his second term as president — even as his administration has sought cuts for other federal programs and agencies.

Trump has touted “no tax” on Social Security with the passage of the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act last month. While the bill doesn’t end Social Security taxes, it will provide many older Americans who qualify for the program with a tax break, according to a Politifact report.

Trump’s megabill gives an additional tax deduction of up to $6,000 for Americans 65 and older. The tax deduction is temporary and is in effect until 2028.

While the move that could mean more income for seniors, some critics say it will have little effect on the social insurance.

Laurence Kotlikof, a professor of economics at Boston University, said changes to the tax deductibles “make it look like Trump had made good on his promise, but there’s no connection of this at all to the taxation of Social Security benefits.” Kotlikof explained that if a person is low income and their tax rate is low to begin with, they will not get much of a tax break from the deductible.

Democrats have criticized the GOP-passed megabill as benefiting the rich while hurting low-income people.

The Trump administration celebrated the program’s 90th anniversary earlier this month with the Social Security Administration’s leader saying he is looking for ways to help the program evolve to help future generations, too.

Frank Bisignano, the administrator of the Social Security Administration, earlier this month shared plans to help Social Security become a “digital-first agency.” Bisignano said the administration had a “bold goal” for 200 million Americans to have a digital SSA account by the end of next year — making the program predominantly digital.

While Trump has expressed confidence in the future of the program, projections state that the program’s trust fund will run out in less than a decade.

The Social Security trust fund, which pays retirement and survivor benefits, is set to run out in 2033, resulting in a 23% reduction in payable benefits at that time, according to the 2025 Trustees Report — a Social Security Administration report that describes the projected fiscal outlook for both Medicaid and Social Security programs and their trust funds. The OASI trust fund will be able to pay 100% of total benefits until 2033. At that time, the reserves will be depleted and will be sufficient to only pay 77% of total benefits, according to the 2025 Trustee Report.

The combined trust funds that Social Security uses to pay retirees, survivors and those with disabilities are set to run out by 2034 — a year earlier than what was last projected in the 2024 report, according to the Trustees Report. Once the combined funds are depleted, the funds would only be able to pay 81% of benefits, according to the report.

The OASI trust fund that is projected to run out in 2033 was valued at $2.538 trillion at the end of 2024, according to the 2025 OASDI Trustees Report. The combined trust funds that fund social security are worth in total $2.7 trillion as of the end of 2024, according to trust fund data on the Social Security Administration website.

In a written statement to ABC News, the Social Security Administration touted the “historic” tax relief to seniors due to the passing of the Trump’s megabill and maintained that it will continue to work with Congress to “protect and strengthen” the program.

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(NEW YORK) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams is saying he’s sorry for the controversy that has surrounded his administration over the past year amid allegations of corruption against the mayor and his associates.

Adams’ tenure has been marked by some measurable achievements that he continues to tout, including a post-COVID recovery and declining crime rates; however, he’s had to deal with the fallout of a federal investigation into him and several separate probes surrounding his top officials over the years.

While the mayor has continued to maintain his innocence after the corruption case against him was dismissed, Adams told ABC News Tuesday that he understands the controversy that has defined his last year in office has been a distraction for New Yorkers.

“To those New Yorkers who have to pick up their paper and read this headline, all I can say is I’m sorry, and I’m committed to this city,” Adams said.

Adams was indicted last September on five counts in an alleged long-standing conspiracy connected to what prosecutors said were improper benefits, illegal campaign contributions and an attempted cover-up.

The charges against the mayor — including counts of wire fraud, conspiracy, bribery and solicitation of a contribution from a foreign entity — were dropped against him in April by the U.S. Justice Department in what his critics claim was a quid pro quo with the Trump administration.

Adams and the Justice Department denied there was a quid pro quo involved in the dropping of the charges.

At least ten of his aides, associates, and appointees have been charged with crimes, and a string of top officials – including four deputy mayors, his school’s chancellor, and police commissioner – resigned ahead of Adams’ indictment last year.

Last week, his former chief adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin was indicted for allegedly profiting from her position in government. She has pleaded not guilty.

Adams, meanwhile, has sought to distance himself from the criminal cases that continue to follow some of his allies and aides.

“You know, we made mistakes. There are people that we brought in government that was probably not ready to go into government, but we must forge ahead,” Adams told ABC News when asked about the scandals involving his inner circle.

The latest controversy to hit the Adams administration came last week when Winnie Greco, a former aide and campaign volunteer, allegedly handed a reporter a bag of potato chips stuffed with cash. Greco resigned from her position in the Adams administration last year after the FBI searched her home.

She has not been charged and the FBI has not commented on the search at her home. Greco and her attorney said the incident with the chip bag was a misunderstanding.

When asked about the incident, Adams said Greco’s actions were “wrong.”

“I don’t know what happened there. It is not something that I believe one should do. It gives a false image. It’s the wrong thing that should be done,” Adams said, adding that Greco is no longer working as a campaign volunteer.

While legal issues continue to follow some of his aides, the criminal case against Adams himself was dismissed earlier this year following orders from top Department of Justice officials.

The decision to dismiss the case was made without considering the strength of the case against Adams, but rather because the charges ” unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime,” the Justice Department argued.

Adams dismissed concerns that if re-elected, he would be more beholden to the Trump administration because it didn’t pursue the indictment.

“The case was dropped with prejudice. That means to New York, to New Yorkers, that it won’t come back again,” Adams said, referencing how prosecutors are barred from bringing the same case against him if the Trump administration changes its position.

Adams continued to argue that the case against him was politically motivated.

“I didn’t spend all my life in law enforcement to break the law. I’ve never broke the law. I never did anything to violate the trust of the people of the city,” he said.

The mayor faces strong competition in the November election.

Progressive upstart Zohran Mamdani handily won the Democratic mayoral primary, and the 33-year-old Democratic socialist maintains his lead over both Adams and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as a third-party candidate, in early polling.

Adams, who is running as an independent candidate, said he believes he remains a Democrat and said he offers a version of politics that appeals to a broader swath of voters than Mamdani.

“I’m a pragmatic moderate Democrat that believes in family, public safety, employment, pro-business, those things that make cities healthy,” Adams said.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Transportation announced new high-speed Acela trains during a Wednesday news conference, which included details about how the agency is “reclaiming the management” of Union Station in Washington, D.C., in an effort to restore it and bolster financial opportunities in it.

Joined by Amtrak leaders, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy helped announce the launch of the NextGen Acela, which Amtrak is calling a high-speed rail service. The NextGen Acela had its inaugural ride from Washington to New York City’s Penn Station Wednesday morning following the announcement.

Duffy said that high-speed trains should be available in the United States — not just abroad. He said these high-speed trains will carry more people, which will lead to better pricing and an overall “better traveling experience for the American public.”

Amtrak President Roger Harris described the new trains as “premium, convenient and comfortable.” The trains are being marketed as the future of high-speed rail with Harris saying they will travel 160 miles per hour. Harris also noted that 95% of the trains are made in the United States and the investment in the new Acela trains helped generate 15,000 new jobs across the country.

While Amtrak is promoting that the trains are high speed, its schedules show the new train is slower than existing ones on the route — by 3-7 minutes per trip between Washington and New York City.

“Trip time improvements will continue to be determined based on infrastructure improvements we will also make along the Corridor. This includes updating and modernizing the tracks and overhead wires,” an Amtrak spokesperson said in response.

Duffy also announced that Union Station is “back under DOT control” in an effort to better restore and monetize it. Though the Union Station has previously been owned by the Department of Transportation, it has been under various agreements and leases.

“Not a power play — we’ve always had it, but we think we can manage the property better,” Duffy said of control of Union Station. “Bring in more tenants, bring in more revenue and that revenue is going to allow us to make investments in this beautiful building.”

Duffy said the effort aligns with President Donald Trump’s plan to reduce crime and homelessness in Washington and beautify Union Station. He added that Trump “wants Union Station to be beautiful again, he wants transit to be safe again, and he wants our nation’s capital to be great again. And today is part of that.”

“We are going to make the investments to make sure that this station isn’t dirty, that we don’t have homelessness in Union Station,” Duffy said. “We want a place where businesses want to obtain leases and set up shop and serve the community of D.C. and also the people who travel into D.C. via train. But also … if you want to go to a great meal and you want to go shopping, you want to come to Union Station because it’s gorgeous, it’s beautiful, it’s safe.”

Last week, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth visited Union Station to thank National Guard members stationed there. During the visit, Vance spoke to reporters about Union Station and crime there.

“You have vagrants, you have drug addicts, you have the chronically homeless. You have the mentally ill who harass, who threaten violence, who attack families, and they’ve done it for far too long. This should be a monument to American greatness. There should be a place where you can come and share a meal or go shopping with your family. It should not be a place where parents of small children are afraid to bring them,” Vance said.

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(WASHINGTON) — National Democrats are celebrating the results of a special election for the Iowa State Senate, after Democrat Catelin Drey won in a district President Donald Trump carried by 11 points in 2024 to break a Republican supermajority of the chamber.

Republicans argue the low turnout race won’t reflect the voters who come out to support the party in the midterms, and that the results are influenced by the Democratic National Committee’s efforts to inject national money and volunteers into the race.

But the results are a potential warning sign for Republicans and suggest Democratic voters may be more engaged heading into next year’s elections, where control of Congress is at stake.

Drey won with 55% of the vote, with Republican Christopher Prosch garnering 44%, according to preliminary results from the Woodbury County Auditor’s Office.

“For the fourth special election in a row, Iowa voted for change,” Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart said after Drey’s victory.

“Our state is ready for a new direction and Iowa Democrats will keep putting forward candidates who can deliver better representation for Iowans,” Hart added.

Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, said on Wednesday the party mobilized more than 30,000 volunteers to aid Drey and Iowa Democrats.

Martin, in a statement touting Drey’s victory, said Iowans are “putting Republicans on notice and making it crystal clear: any Republican pushing Trump’s unpopular, extreme agenda has no place governing on behalf of Iowa families.”

“That’s why all year long, Iowans have been electing Democrats ready to fight for working Iowans. Make no mistake: when Democrats organize everywhere, we win everywhere, and today is no exception,” Martin said.

This is the second time this year that Democrats have won a special election in Iowa. In January, they flipped another Iowa State Senate seat in a GOP area that President Trump won by 21 points last November.

The result of Tuesday’s special election also has practical implications for the state. Without a supermajority, Republicans can no longer confirm the governor’s appointees without Democratic support.

Iowa Republican Party chair Jeff Kaufman, on social media, downplayed the win for Democrats.

“National Democrats were so desperate for a win that they activated 30,000 volunteers and a flood of national money to win a state senate special election by a few hundred votes,” Kaufman wrote on X. “If @DNC thinks things are suddenly so great again for them in Iowa, they will bring back the caucuses.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The Democrats are in a tough stretch. Their fundraising and voter registration lags Republicans. And polls show American voters find the party generally unfavorable.

But at this week’s Democratic National Committee summer meeting in Minneapolis, members are desperate to turn a page, shed a rudderless reputation, and more clearly define their platform as they look to deliver wins in upcoming governor’s races and the midterms next year.

In fact, at least a half dozen members who spoke to ABC News say that they are eager to start fighting back more aggressively against President Donald Trump and feel like some of the problems the party finds itself in is due to compounding factors, rather than the direct fault of Chair Ken Martin, who was elected in early February.

One of the ways Democrats believe they can get their footing back is leaning into the recent outrage around Republican efforts to pursue mid-decade redistricting and take a page out of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s playbook to give Trump a taste of his own rhetoric. Many members also believe they can resonate with voters as they push back against the impacts Trump’s spending and policy bill have on health care and costs.

“We all know that this is going to be an uphill battle. We all know that there’s tremendous challenges ahead, but we also know that the American people are not happy with the way things are turning out, and you see it in the polling,” said Maria Cardona, a member from Washington, D.C., who brushed off anxieties about Democrats in disarray as “b——t.”

“All of this internal b——t is exactly that — it’s b——t,” Cardona said.

This week’s meeting is the first major gathering of Martin’s tenure — and an early litmus test of his popularity and trust in his leadership, as his first few months have been mired in growing pains.

The DNC reported having around only $14 million cash on hand as of the end of July — far less than the Republican National Committee, which reported having $84.3 million cash on hand. The DNC also fundraised less than the RNC in July.

The news is better for Democrats’ official U.S. House campaign arm. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee reported having $40.4 million cash on hand by the end of July, while its GOP counterpart, the National Republican Congressional Committee, reported having $37.6 million cash on hand. The DCCC also outpaced the NRCC in fundraising in July.

Martin has faced increased scrutiny and criticism over infighting surrounding Gen Z activist David Hogg, who resigned from his role as vice chair after he promised to support primary challenges of incumbent Democrats he saw as complacent. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten also stepped away from the DNC in June, writing in her resignation letter she is “out of step” with new party leadership. Weingarten endorsed Martin’s most prominent chair challenger, Ben Wikler, the former Wisconsin Democratic Party chair.

When asked by ABC News about Democratic voter registration lagging as reported by The New York Times last week, Martin said the party has “work to do, for sure,” and pointed to the committee’s new organizing summer project, a volunteer training and voter registration initiative that sets to train Democrats to engage — and ideally convert voters — in non-political spaces in battleground areas and online as proof of concept.

“We’ve got to get back to registering voters — that’s what the DNC has already started this year with our summer organizing program. We are doing that with our state parties now,” Martin said during an event at the Minnesota State Fair.

Shasti Conrad, a DNC member from Washington state, said that grief over the election loss has permeated several conversations with fellow members, but has felt a recent energy shift, particularly after Texas House Democrats denied a quorum to delay the passage of new congressional district maps — which now await the signature of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

“When you lose an election like we did last year, you’re going to feel people’s rage, their sadness, their despair, all of that, and that is very much, has been what has been reverberating through every conversation that I’ve had,” Conrad said. “I think we’re all trying to move through this.”

Conrad continued: “We are starting to really get on solid footing, and that’s my hope with this meeting, is that we’ll be able to walk out of here feeling ‘Ok, we’re settled.'”

Conrad finds some of the handwringing about fundraising and voter registration “slightly overblown” and feels like the organization is in a solid place and has room to grow.

That doesn’t mean internal concerns have evaporated — but members feel concern is finally resulting in consensus.

“This is the crows coming home to roost. We’ve abandoned partisan voter registration for a very long time and it’s no surprise that we’re not only losing elections, but we’re also losing voters,” said progressive DNC member Michael Kapp from California. Kapp says he is “so happy” that Martin, in his view, is focused on righting the wrong.

Kapp said he believes it’s a “new day at the DNC” and that many members are frustrated with national Democratic top brass — like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — for not doing enough. He also suggested that some members are galvanized to be a more active resistance.

“I see anger. I see willingness to stand up and defend the communities that are being impacted by this administration. I see frustration that we can’t move fast enough, and I know that that’s a frustration that Chair Martin himself feels, but he’s working like crazy,” Kapp said.

“A number of members arrived concerned about the direction of the party, but the focus on unity and messaging has been well received,” North Dakota member Jamie Selzler said. Selzler added that while he expects conversations about the fundraising figures to keep coming up, “There’s a sense that standing up against Republican overreach over the next few years and winning in Virginia and New Jersey this year will be an important factor in proving we can fight back.”

Andre Treiber, a Texas DNC member and youth council chair, feels like the committee is nearing the end of a “rebuild phase.”

“This is going to be repouring the final cement,” Trieber said. “The Democratic Party definitely has a brand issue, and I think that is what so many people here this week care a lot about fixing.”

For John Verdejo, a DNC member from North Carolina, the next step for the party is to keep things simple — focus on core issues like affordability, for instance — and stop feeling sorry for yourself.

“We need to get our message straight,” said Verdejo, who stressed the party should keep things simple: focus on core issues like affordability, for instance.

Verdejo understands why some members of the party may be licking their wounds post-loss, but believes the complaining should wrap as the committee reaches a critical transition point. Internally, there’s a desire for more fighters, Verdejo said, which he does see reflected in Martin, who he and other Democrats who spoke to ABC maintain is broadly well-liked despite the early challenges of his tenure.

“We need to, we need to think differently, strategically, dirty even, take the gloves off. Never mind the polling, never mind what the stats say. Never mind what the numbers say … people want to see that fire in us. Let’s give it to them. This is life or death out here,” Verdejo added.

ABC’s Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump’s attempted removal of Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors – an unprecedented assertion of executive power – sets the stage for a consequential legal battle likely bound for the U.S. Supreme Court.

In creating the nation’s central bank, Congress explicitly sought to insulate the Fed from political interference by mandating 14-year terms for board members appointed by a president and confirmed by the Senate.

Federal law says members can only be fired “for cause,” which has been interpreted to mean inefficiency, neglect, or malfeasance while in office.

No president has ever tried to terminate a member of the Federal Reserve for cause, and no court has ever been asked to weigh in on such an action.

The administration accuses Cook, who was appointed by President Biden in 2022, of “gross negligence” based on unproven allegations that she had engaged in mortgage fraud before taking office. Cook denies any wrongdoing.

Legal experts say her continued tenure at the bank could turn on whether courts find sufficient evidence exist of alleged “malfeasance” and how much discretion the president may have to decide whether the standard has been met.

The showdown is expected to play out over the next few weeks with at least a preliminary decision by the Supreme Court possible before the end of the year.

“President Trump has no authority to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. His attempt to fire her, based solely on a referral letter, lacks any factual or legal basis,” Cook’s attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement Tuesday. “We will be filing a lawsuit challenging this illegal action.”

While the Supreme Court has recently endorsed broad presidential power to remove members of independent agencies that exercise executive power – like the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), National Labor Relations Board (NRLB), and Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) – the conservative majority of justices has also made clear that the Fed is different.

“The Federal Reserve is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity that follows in the distinct historical tradition of the First and Second Banks of the United States,” the court wrote in an unsigned May opinion that allowed Trump to terminate Democratically-appointed members of the MSPB and NLRB.

The court emphasized that its ruling for Trump did not implicate the legality of for-cause removal protections at the Fed. By implication, the Court suggested that members of the Fed do not exercise power on behalf of the president.

The ultimate outcome of the landmark dispute is far from clear, however.

As Justice Elena Kagan noted in May – dissenting from her conservative colleagues in the case of Trump’s firings at the MSPB and NLRB – “[I] do not doubt the the majority’s intention to avoid imperiling the Fed. But then, today’s order poses a puzzle. For the Federal Reserve’s independence rests on the same constitutional and analytic foundations” as that of the other independent government agencies Congress has created.

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(WASHINGTON) — After a weekend of tit-for-tat jabs on social media and television, President Donald Trump and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore are continuing their feud — with Trump claiming the governor called him the “greatest president of my lifetime,” but Moore referring to this as an “imaginary conversation.”

While signing executive orders in the Oval Office Monday afternoon, Trump continued his ongoing criticism of Moore and the city of Baltimore for being a “deathbed” with “tremendous crime,” before flashing back to an interaction that he described fondly.

“I met him at the Army-Navy game. They said, ‘Oh there’s Gov. Moore. He’d love to see you.’ He came over to me, hugged me, shook my hand, you were there. He said, ‘Sir, you’re the greatest president of my lifetime,'” Trump said, adding that Moore had told him he was doing a “fantastic job.”

“I said, ‘That’s really nice that you say that. I’d love you to say that publicly, but I don’t think you can do that so it’s OK,'” the president continued.

But the governor denied that such a conversation ever happened, calling it “imaginary.”

“I’m a person who takes my integrity very seriously and I spent the past six months before that election campaigning as to why I did not think that he should be the next president of the United States, so when I say that that conversation never happened — that imaginary conversation never happened — I mean, that conversation never happened,” Moore told WBAL Radio.

Moore also turned to X Monday evening, writing, “Keep telling yourself that, Mr. President” in response to a clip of Trump’s remarks in the Oval Office.

A video clip from the Army-Navy game aired on Fox News Monday night, showing the two smiling and shaking hands, with Moore saying “it’s great to see you … it’s great to have you back here.” However, there was no mention of Moore calling Trump the “greatest president” of his lifetime.

“We are very, very anxious to be able to work closely with you,” Moore told the president, emphasizing federal funding to repair Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge as a focal point for the state of Maryland. A cargo ship struck the historic bridge last year, causing a partial structural collapse and plunging multiple vehicles from the bridge into the water.

“We’ll help you out,” Trump said after the two conversed some more.

Moore’s office told ABC News that the governor and the president did not have any other interaction at the Army-Navy game apart from what was seen in the video clip.

Yet the White House continues to double down on Trump’s remarks, telling ABC News that Moore’s flattering commentary took place “behind the scenes.”

“Governor Wes Moore heaped praise upon President Trump behind the scenes after the President’s landslide victory on November 5th,” White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said in a statement. “The only reason lightweight Wes Moore is attacking President Trump now is because he’s desperate for attention and delusional enough to think he has a chance at becoming the next President.”

In the Oval Office Tuesday, Trump once again denounced the city of Baltimore’s crime rate, calling it a “hell hole.”

“Wes Moore was telling me … ‘I want to walk with the president.’ Well, I said, ‘I want to work with you, too, someday. But first you’ve got to clean up your crime because I’m not walking.'”

Last week, Moore formally invited the president to join Baltimore officials on a public safety walk. In a letter, Moore highlighted the action Maryland has taken to combat crime while also underscoring the federal cuts made by the Trump administration that have impacted the state.

“Governor Wes Moore of Maryland has asked, in a rather nasty and provocative tone, that I ‘walk the streets of Maryland’ with him. I assume he is talking about out of control, Crime ridden, Baltimore?,” Trump wrote on his social media platform in response, saying he “will send in the ‘troops,’ which is being done in nearby DC, and quickly clean up the Crime,” if the governor “needs help.”

The president’s concern with the city’s crime rate comes as the mayor of Baltimore announced “historic reductions in violent crime” last month for the first half of 2025, in addition to citing the lowest homicide rate in 50 years.

ABC News’ Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — A Donald Trump-appointed federal judge has dismissed the case brought by the Department of Justice against the entire Maryland judiciary over a standing order that bars the government from deporting undocumented immigrants for at least one day after they file a legal challenge to their detention.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Cullen called the Trump administration’s attacks on district judges across the country a “smear” and “unprecedented and unfortunate.”

“Indeed, over the past several months, principal officers of the Executive (and their spokespersons) have described federal district judges across the country as ‘left-wing,’ ‘liberal,’ ‘activists,’ ‘radical,’ ‘politically minded,’ ‘rogue,’ ‘unhinged,’ ‘outrageous, overzealous, [and] unconstitutional,’ ‘[c]rooked,’ and worse,” Cullen wrote in a footnote. “Although some tension between the coordinate branches of government is a hallmark of our constitutional system, this concerted effort by the Executive to smear and impugn individual judges who rule against it is both unprecedented and unfortunate.”

Cullen argued the administration must find a proper way to raise their concerns with the judges in the District Court of Maryland, and wrote he doesn’t believe that should be done by suing the entire Maryland judiciary.

“Much as the Executive fights the characterization, a lawsuit by the executive branch of government against the judicial branch for the exercise of judicial power is not ordinary. The Executive’s lawsuit will be dismissed, and its motion for preliminary injunction denied as moot. Whatever the merits of its grievance with the judges of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, the Executive must find a proper way to raise those concerns,” he wrote in the decision.

In late June, the Justice Department made the unusual move to sue the entire Maryland federal judiciary over the order barring the government from deporting undocumented immigrants for at least one day after they file a challenge.

“This lawsuit involves yet another regrettable example of the unlawful use of equitable powers to restrain the Executive,” the lawsuit read. “Specifically, Defendants have instituted an avowedly automatic injunction against the federal government, issued outside the context of any particular case or controversy … by promulgating a standing order and amended standing order that require the court clerk to automatically enter an injunction against removing, or changing the legal status of, any alien detained in Maryland who files a habeas petition.”

The standing order was implemented in May as courts across the country were seeking to manage a wave of emergency lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s aggressive moves to deport undocumented immigrants.

The federal court in Maryland is currently home to arguably the most high-profile of these deportation cases: the one involving Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported in March before being brought back to the U.S. to face new criminal charges, was taken into immigration custody upon checking in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement at its office in Baltimore on Monday morning and is currently being held at a detention center in Virginia, where he is again facing deportation.

ABC News’ Laura Romero and Ely Brown contributed to this report.

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